Method and system for visualizing social connections in a video meeting

ABSTRACT

A method implemented on a computing device for conducting a video conference includes identifying at least some attendees of the video conference, acquiring a social graph associated with at least some of the attendees, and presenting at least a representation of a portion of the social graph to the attendees during said video conference.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention generally relates to improving a video conferenceexperience and particularly, but not exclusively, to providing videoconference participants with additional information regarding the otherparticipants.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

In the field of communications, the role of video conferencing hasincreased, and more and more enterprises of various sizes and types usevideo conference tools. Video conference technology is advantageous, asa video conference enables people at two or more distinct locations tointeract with each other via two-way video and audio transmissions, thussimulating lifelike face-to-face interactions between people, usingadvanced visual, audio, and collaboration technologies.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The present invention will be understood and appreciated more fully fromthe following detailed description, taken in conjunction with thedrawings in which:

FIG. 1 is a simplified pictorial illustration of an exemplary enterprisevideo conference system, constructed and operative in accordance with anembodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a simplified pictorial illustration of a view from withinexemplary video conference site from the system of FIG. 2;

FIG. 3 is a schematic illustration of companion device operative for usewith the system of FIG. 3; and

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of a process to be executed by the system ofFIG. 1.

DESCRIPTION OF EXAMPLE EMBODIMENTS Overview

A method implemented on a computing device for conducting a videoconference includes identifying at least some attendees of the videoconference, acquiring a social graph associated with at least some ofthe attendees, and presenting at least a representation of a portion ofthe social graph to the attendees during said video conference.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EXAMPLE EMBODIMENTS

Video conferences are typically set up or initiated by a hostparticipant sending an invitation to one or more invitees. Theinvitation is typically extended via email and includes a time and datefor the conference. Usually, but not necessarily, the invitation alsoincludes at least an indication of the subject of the conference, i.e. aname for the meeting to which the invitees have been invited toparticipate. An invitee that responds positively to the invitationbecomes an attendee, and the video conference may be held at theindicated time and date as per the invitation.

It will be appreciated by those of skill in the art that while theinvitations to a video conference may be addressed to individualinvitees, or even groups of invitees, a typical video conference systemmay be indifferent as to who may actually participate in a videoconference session, as long as they do so from a site that is registeredfor use in the given video conference. Some video conferences may evenbe initiated on an ad hoc basic without being set up ahead of time viainvitation. For example, a video conference may be initiated by oneattendee directly calling one or more additional attendees on a suitabledevice such as a video enabled telephone. The added attendees may alsocall additional attendees to add them to the video conference. Otherdevices for video conferences may also be configurable to directlyaccess one another without an invitation process to initiate ad hocvideo conferences.

Accordingly, from an operational point of view, the participants of avideo conference may not necessarily be the host and/or the attendeesper se, so much as video conference sites (VCSs) that may or may not bedirectly or indirectly associated with the host and attendees.Non-invitees may therefore also participate in a given video conferenceas long as they are present at a site that has the proper credentials tojoin that given video conference.

A VCS, as will be appreciated by one who is skilled in the art, maytypically be, for example, a video conference room, a dedicated videoconference unit, a video enabled telephone, or a software based videoconference application. Video conference rooms are typically designed tofacilitate participation by multiple attendees in a video conference. Abasic configuration for a video conference room typically includes adisplay screen, a video camera and a microphone, as well as a computingdevice configured to operate and control video conference sessions. Moresophisticated configurations typically include one or more additionalscreens, cameras and/or microphones to provide a richer experience tothe attendees. Video conference rooms are typically “booked” or reservedfor a video conference session as part of the invitation process. Thehost participant may book a room for a video conference session bysending the room an invitation in generally the same manner asinvitations are sent to prospective attendees. Video conferenceinvitations also typically comprise login information that may be usedby the attendees to book a room by either forwarding the invitation to aroom of their choosing, or by manually entering the login information inthe room in order to join the video conference in session. It will beappreciated that video conference rooms may also be used to initiate orjoin ad hoc video conferences.

Other VCSs may be configured to be used by a single attendee. Forexample, a personal VCS may be implemented via a dedicated videoconferencing hardware unit comprising at least a display screen with abuilt-in video camera and microphone, as well as a processor to operateand control the unit. Video enabled telephones may also be used toattend a video conference. A software based video conference applicationmay be implemented on non-dedicated devices, typically on a personalcomputer with a display screen, a video camera and a microphone. Since asoftware based video conference application may be implemented on acommonly available personal computer without dedicated hardware, it mayprovide a low cost, flexible alternative to dedicated video conferencerooms and hardware units. Personal VCSs and software based videoconference applications may participate in video conferences in agenerally similar manner as video conference rooms; i.e. either byinvitation, via the entering of login information to join the videoconference, or by accepting an ad hoc connection.

Accordingly, it will be appreciated that as noted hereinabove, whilevideo conference invitations may generally be sent to prospectiveattendees, video conferences per se are typically conducted betweenVCSs. The video conference system may be indifferent as to the identityof the actual attendees. For example, once a video conference room hasbeen booked for a video conference, anyone who walks through the door atthe right time may participate in the video conference. Similarly,invited attendees may bring non-invited colleagues to a video conferencewithout adding them to the list of invitees. U.S. patent applicationSer. No. 14/155,843 entitled “DISPLAYING INFORMATION ABOUT AT LEAST ONEPARTICIPANT IN A VIDEO CONFERENCE SESSION”, which is assigned to thecommon assignees of the present invention, discloses methods forproviding information about the attendees of a video conference, using,for example, face recognition, voice recognition, site, location andcombinations thereof to identify individual attendees.

The inventor of the present invention has realized that it may bebeneficial to not only provide information about the attendees of avideo conference, but to provide information about the relationshipsbetween the attendees as well. For example, whether or not otherattendees are connected in some way; which attendees belong to the sameorganization; which of the attendees is most senior in the organization,etc.

Reference is now made to FIG. 1 which illustrates an exemplaryenterprise video conference system 10, constructed and operative inaccordance with embodiments of the present invention. System 10comprises at least one video conference server 100 that may communicateover any suitable means such as known in the art with a multiplicity ofattendee VCSs 200.

Server 100 comprises meeting service 110 which provides typical videoconference functionality to attendee sites 200. It will be appreciatedthat video conference server may also comprise at least one I/O module(not shown) such as a transceiver for sending and receiving data, and atleast one processor (not shown) operative to at least execute meetingservice 110.

Meeting service 110 may be operative to manage a video conferencebetween VCSs 200. It will be appreciated that as discussed hereinabove,VCSs 200 may represent any combination of video conference rooms,dedicated video conference units, and/or ad hoc video conference units.

Enterprise video conference system 10 may also comprise attendeedirectory 130. Attendee information is typically stored in a persistentdata store in attendee directory 130, normally in the form of a databaseor directory which may typically be implemented as an LDAP baseddirectory such as, for example, Microsoft Active Directory, or any othersuitable directory service. It will be appreciated that attendeedirectory 130 may be integrated as a part of an enterprise contactdirectory that may be accessed by a video conference's host to invitesome or all of the invitees to a given video conference. Attendeedetails stored by attendee directory 130 may include, for example,attendee name, email address, position, photo, department, location,etc. It will be appreciated that the actual details stored by activedirectory may be dependent on the configuration of attendee directory130. It will further be appreciated that relevant details of attendeesmay be available to meeting service 110 once an invitee has accepted aninvitation to attend a given video conference.

Reference is now also made to FIG. 2 which illustrates a view fromwithin exemplary VCS 200D participating in a video conference managed bymeeting service 110. It will be appreciated that VCS 200D may beconfigured as a video conference room with multiple display panels 210,each configurable to be associated with a different VCS 200participating in the same video conference. For example, display panel210A may be associated with VCS 200A; display panel 210B may beassociated with VCS 200B; display panel 210C may be associated with VCS200C; and so on. In the example depicted in FIG. 2, VCSs 210A-C areconfigured with multiple cameras to provide alternative views on displaypanels 210A-C, depending on who may be speaking and/or other criteria.Thumbnail displays 220 may be reduced versions of the alternative views.It will be appreciated that not all VCSs 200 may be configured toprovide thumbnail displays 220. Similarly, it will be appreciated thatthe depiction of a video conference with four participating VCSs may beexemplary; other configurations may also be supported by the presentinvention.

It will be appreciated that video conference system 10 may be configuredto detect the presence of individual attendees in an ongoing videoconference. For example, well known face identification methods may beused to detect the presence of an attendee. In some video conferenceroom configurations with fixed camera and microphone locations, variouscombinations of movement sensing and/or voice detection methods may alsobe used to identify the presence of an attendee in a given seat in theroom. As depicted in FIG. 2, each of the attendees whose presence may bethusly detected is denoted with a node 230 displayed above their heads.

Returning to FIG. 1, once the attendees are detected, meeting service110 may determine their identities using a variety of known methods suchas those disclosed in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 14/155,843,including, for example, face recognition, voice recognition, site,location and combinations thereof. It will be appreciated that meetingservice 110 may access relevant details from attendee directory 130 suchas, for example, photos and location, to determine the attendeeidentities. It will be appreciated that meeting service 110 may notalways be successful in identifying the attendees. As discussedhereinabove, some attendees may be from other organizations and/or maynot have actually been invited to the video conference. In such cases,there may be insufficient information in attendee directory tosuccessfully identify each attendee.

Enterprise video conference system 10 may also comprise attendee socialrelationship service 150. It will be appreciated that the depiction ofservice 150 as a module independent of server 100 may be exemplary; thepresent invention also supports the integration of service 150 withinthe functionality of server 100 as well. Meeting service 110 may forwardthe determined attendee identities to attendee social relationshipservice 150. The form in which the identities are forwarded may dependon the individual attendee. For example, an attendee identity may beindicated by an email, an employee number, or any other suitableidentifier.

Attendee social relationship service 150 may forward the attendeeidentities to attendee directory 130 with a request to receive detailsof the indicated video conference attendees. Attendee directory 130 maytypically be implemented as an LDAP based directory such as, forexample, Microsoft Active Directory, or any other suitable directoryservice. It will be appreciated that attendee directory 130 may alsocomprise an enterprise contact list that may have been accessed by avideo conference's host to invite some or all of the invitees to thegiven video conference. Attendee details that may be sent from attendeedirectory 130 may include, for example, attendee name, email address,position, photo, department, location, etc. It will be appreciated thatthe actual details stored by active directory may be dependent on theconfiguration of attendee directory 130.

Attendee social relationship service 150 may also send a request toreceive additional input regarding the details of video conferenceattendees from enterprise social network 140. Enterprise social network140 may be an internal social network such as Cisco System's WebExSocial®, Microsoft's Yammer, IBM Connections, and/or any other suitableenterprise social network that may be used by an enterprise's employeesand possibly other approved contacts. Such networks may typically storeinformation about their members (i.e. employees of the enterprise) suchas their areas of interest, hobbies, expertise, past experience,education, etc. Such networks may also be operative to enable theirmembers to “follow” other members, or to become their “friends” or“buddies”, each of which entails the forming of some kind ofrelationship between two or more members. Members may also join groupsof members with common interests.

Service 150 may collate information about relationships between a videoconference's attendees from attendee directory 130 and/or enterprisesocial network 140. Service 150 may then forward the collatedinformation to meeting service 110. As will be discussed hereinbelow,service 110 may use the collated information to enhance the videoconference experience for some or all of the attendees.

Meeting service 110 may forward the collated information to social graphrenderer 120. Social graph renderer 120 may be operable to render asocial graph for the identified attendees based on the informationcollated by attendee social relationship service 150. It will beappreciated that social graphs are known tools for mapping relationshipsand characteristics of social network members. The resulting socialgraph may provide insight as to relationships between the attendees of avideo conference.

In accordance with some embodiments of the present invention,alternatively or in addition, system 10 may be configured to usepreviously rendered social graphs and/or social graphs available fromexternal sources. As will be discussed hereinbelow, social graphsrendered for a given video conference session may be saved for use insubsequent video conference. Also, social graphs for identifiedattendees may be available via API from external sources such asLinkedIn or Facebook. Accordingly, in some embodiments of the presentinvention, meeting service may be configured to acquire a social graphfrom sources (either internal or external to system 10) other thansocial graph renderer 120.

Meeting service 110 may use at least a portion of the rendered socialgraph to enhance the video conference taking place in VCS200D. Forexample, as shown in FIG. 2, there may be a solid line connecting node230A and node 230B. In such manner meeting service 110 may indicate thatthese two attendees are connected to each other in some way such as, forexample, they are friends in enterprise social network 140. A dashedline, such as that between nodes 230A and 230C may indicate that theassociated attendees are not connected. Alternatively, a dashed line mayindicate a degree of connection, i.e. the associated attendees areindirectly connected by a common connection with the attendee associatedwith node 230B. A third degree of connection may be indicated by adotted line, and so on. Per the example in FIG. 2, the absence of anylines connecting to node 230D may indicate that none of the otherattendees are known to be connected with the attendee associated withnode 230D.

It will be appreciated that the use of solid and dashed lines may beexemplary; in operation system 10 may support configurable graphicalrepresentation to indicate a variety of possible relationships betweenattendees. For example, relationships may also be indicated bybackground colors; employees from one division may have a light bluebackground, whereas employees from another division may have a lightgreen background. For example, in FIG. 2, the background of displaypanel 210C may be shaded to indicate that associated VCS 200C is anexternal site not associated with the enterprise of system 10. Inanother example of possible graphical representations of relationship,an attendee “following” another employee may be indicated by an arrowconnecting their associated nodes 230; attendees following each othermay be indicated by a bidirectional arrow.

It will be appreciated that system 19 may be configured to providesimilar functionality for relationships involving attendees appearing inthumbnails 220. Furthermore, system 10 may be configured to presentrelationships between attendees displayed in both display panels 210 andthumbnails 220.

System 10 may also support the representation of multiple relationships.For example, one set of lines may indicate social network connections,e.g. friends or followers, and a second set of lines or a backgroundcolor scheme may represent work relationships, e.g. members of the samegroup. In some configurations, a badge or label may also be superimposedonto the display in order to provide information such as, for example,the seniority of one attendee vis-à-vis another, e.g. if one of theattendees is the CEO. Alternatively, seniority may be indicated by therelative placement of the associated node 230, e.g. the associated node230 may be displayed at a higher point in display panel 210.

In accordance with embodiments of the present invention, theconfiguration and level of display of attendee relationship may also beconfigurable on a per site basis. For example, whereas VCS 200D may beconfigured to use solid lines to show which attendees displayed ondisplay panels 210 are connected to each other socially, VCS 200A may beconfigured to use background colors to indicate which attendees maybelong to which divisions in the workplace.

It will be appreciated that the representation of attendee relationshipsmay be restricted by policy. For example, certain representations may berestricted according to seniority and/or function within the enterprise.Human resource personnel may be entitled to view group relationshipsthat may not be available to other personnel. Also, as discussedhereinabove, some attendees, for example the attendee associated withnode 230D, may be from outside the enterprise. It may be beneficial torestrict their access to information regarding internal or externalrelationships. Accordingly the presentation of attendee relationshipsmay be filtered or restricted in accordance with policies.

As discussed hereinabove, meeting service 110 may be unable tosuccessfully identify all of the attendees of a video conference. Itwill be appreciated that it is not uncommon for an invited attendee toask another person to attend a video conference with them or instead ofthem. Under such circumstances, the uninvited attendee may be difficultor even impossible to find in attendee directory 130.

For example, if a photo from attendee directory 130 is used to identifyattendees using face recognition, it may be generally relatively easy toidentify a given attendee from among the participants of a videoconference. When analyzing faces from among a discrete pool ofcandidates, generally the closest match is the correct one, and anidentification may be made with high confidence even if there is not aone-to-one match of features. Any discrepancies may be assumed to beartifacts of different poses, resolutions, and/or lighting conditions.Another attendee may also be asked for input to confirm anidentification and/or to select from among a limited number of candidateidentifications. However, it may not always be feasible to promptanother attendee for such input, for example, if the identified attendeeis from outside of the enterprise, it's possible that none of the“trusted” attendees from inside the enterprise are capable of making anidentification. Furthermore, if the attendee is not from among theinvited attendees, it may be necessary to search an enterprise directoryof hundreds or thousands of candidates, greatly reducing the confidenceof any match.

In accordance with embodiments of the present invention, thecharacteristics and/or relationships of the attendees that have beenidentified may be used to identify other attendees. For example, ifthere are three attendees participating from a given VCS and two of themhave been identified, the common relationships and/or characteristics ofthe two identified attendees may be used to narrow the search for thethird attendee. If, for example, both of the identified attendees workin the same department or if they are friends in enterprise socialnetwork 140, identification attempts for the third attendee may focus onother workers in the same department or among their friends, therebyincreasing the chances of a successful match.

It will be appreciated that attendees that are not associated with theenterprise of system 10 may still have publicly accessible informationthat may be used to identify them. In accordance with embodiments of thepresent invention, service 150 may also access external social networks145 for information regarding the attendees of a video conference.Typical non-limiting examples of external social networks 145 areFacebook® and LinkedIn®. Members of such networks typically have publicand private profiles. The Inventor of the present invention has realizedthat the information in the public profiles, particularly if it includesdetails such as a photo, name or place of employment, may be used toidentify uninvited attendees.

In an exemplary scenario, display panel 210B as depicted in FIG. 2 maybe associated with an external VCS 200, not included with the enterpriseof system 10. The attendee represented by node 230B may have beeninvited by the video conference host and identified as per the methodsdiscussed hereinabove. However, the attendee represented by node 230Cmay not have been invited and accordingly may not be identifiable bysuch methods.

However, the attendee of node 230B may have an account in an externalsocial network 145 whose privacy settings allow non-friends to view alist of the attendee's friends. Service 150 may access external socialnetwork 145, e.g. Facebook, to search for a profile associated with theidentified attendee, typically using an email to identify the profile.Service 150 may then access the profile and forward the public detailsof the attendee's friends list to meeting service 110. If, for example,photos are included in these details, they may be analyzed to search fora match for the attendee indicated by node 230C. If a match is found,the public details regarding the now identified attendee that wereprovided in connection with the account belonging to the attendee of230B may be used by social graph renderer 120 to map relationships withother attendees of the video conference.

Alternatively or in combination, system 10 may also support the use ofprivate profile information to identify attendees. For example, it willbe appreciated that some or all of the identified attendees may beassociated with the enterprise of system 10, i.e. they may be employeesof the organization operating system 10. In accordance with someembodiments of the present invention, these associated attendees maypermit service 150 to use their account name and password to broaden thesearch for unidentified attendees. For example, the account name andpassword may be entered into attendee directory 130 and/or enterprisesocial network with access granted to service 150. When seeking toidentify unidentified attendees, service 150 may use these account namesand passwords to access the private profiles of the identified attendeesto search for more characteristics that may be used to identify otherattendees.

Alternatively, or in combination, other characteristics of the attendeeindicated by 230B may be used to search one or more external socialnetworks 145 to find a match for the attendee indicated by 230C Forexample, known details regarding the attendee indicated by 230B maytypically include an email. Email domains are often indicative of abusiness's name which may be used to search an external social network145 such as, for example, LinkedIn, for matches with a profile listingthe indicated business as a current place of employment. It will beappreciated that other known characteristics associated with theattendee of node 230B, such as, for example, profession, city ofresidence, alma mater, etc. may be leveraged similarly either singly orin combination.

It will be appreciated that once an attendee may have been identified insuch a manner, other external social networks may be accessed usingwhatever identifying information may now be available, including, forexample, either a name, or a name in combination with other details suchas place of employment, alma mater, etc. In such manner, additionalinformation may be harvested to be used by social graph renderer 120 tomap the relationships of the now identified attendee with the rest ofthe attendees. It will similarly be appreciated that if an attendee mayhave provided system 10 with an account name and password for anexternal social network 145, the private information thereby accessedmay also be used to augment the information used by social graphrenderer

As discussed hereinabove, the relationships displayed on display panels210 and thumbnails 220 may be configurable, subject to access policies.It will be appreciated that VCSs 200 may be configured with a userinterface for configuring how the relationships may be displayed forthat particular VCS 200. It will similarly be appreciated that system 10may also comprise a user interface for configuring system wide settingsand defaults, as well as for setting access policies.

It will be further appreciated that it may be beneficial to enableindividual attendees sharing a VCS 200 with other attendees to selectindividual settings for relationship display. In accordance with someembodiments of the present invention, video conference rooms may beconfigured with individual consoles operative to display personalizedversions of attendee relationships as per settings entered by individualattendees. Alternatively, or in combination, attendees may also usecompanion devices such as, for example, personal computers, laptops,tablets and smartphones to configure and provide a personalized attendeerelationship display.

Reference is now made to FIG. 3 which is a block diagram drawing of anexemplary companion device 300 for use in the system of FIG. 1.Companion device 300 comprises hardware and software components, such asare well-known in the art. Companion device 300 comprises at least oneprocessor 310, I/O module 320, display 325 and meeting client 330.

It will be appreciated that companion device 300 may comprise more thanone processor 310. For example, one such processor 310 may be a specialpurpose processor operative to execute meeting client 330 to configureand manage a personalized relationship display to be displayed ondisplay 325 which may typically, although not necessarily, be a touchscreen operative to receive additional inputs from the viewer. I/Omodule may typically be a transceiver operative to use protocols such asare known in the art to provide communications at least between meetingclient 330 and other elements of system 10. In embodiments of thepresent invention companion device 300 may provide alternate versions ofthe relationships displayed on display panels 210 and thumbnails 220 perdevice specific settings.

It will be appreciated that companion devices 300 may be employed by anindividual attendee to perform and displayed relationship inquirieswithout affecting the overall experience of the video conference asexperienced by other attendees in the same VCS 200. Such relationshipinquiries may be also be performed via the user interface of a VCS 200(and the results displayed on display panels 210 and/or thumbnails 220),but it may be more convenient to do so on a personal companion device300. For example, instead of configuring a certain type of relationshipto be displayed, e.g. friends, division or work site, a relationshipinquiry may search all the information collated by service 150 for anyconnection between a specific attendee and anyone else in the videoconference. A typical scenario for such an inquiry may be for anattendee to make a self-focused inquiry regarding how all the otherattendees are related (if at all) to the inquiring attendee.

Another typical scenario for using such an inquiry may be whenconducting a video conference with an attendee external to theenterprise of system 10. If the external attendee is relatively unknown,it may be beneficial to find someone else in the video conference withsomething in common with the external attendee. Such an inquiry mayyield a result such as, for example, the external attendee and two otherattendees are both lawyers or volunteer firefighters. It will beappreciated that if display 325 is a touch screen, such an inquiry maybe initiated by tapping on the focus of the inquiry, i.e. per thescenario, the user of companion device 300 may tap on the image of theexternal attendee. It will be appreciated that other gestures such asfor example double taps, swipes, circling, etc. may also be configuredto initiate such an inquiry.

In another scenario, an inquiry may be to find any connection betweentwo or more specific attendees. For example, if external attendees fromtwo different organizations are attending the video conference, such aninquiry may reveal if they are somehow connected. In yet anotherscenario, an inquiry may be to find connections between one or moreattendees and anyone in the enterprise. As discussed in the context ofthe previous scenario, the two external attendees may be selected forthe inquiry by the user tapping on display 325.

It will be appreciated that the need for such information may not bespecific to conducting the video conference per se, however system 10may leverage the fact that the data required for such inquiries may beavailable as a byproduct of the relationship mapping process. In orderto further leverage the output of social graph renderer 120, socialgraphs may also be saved for further analysis and display after a videoconference has ended. In accordance with some embodiments of the presentinvention, two or more saved social graphs may also be merged toidentify relationships between attendees of different video conferences.

It will be appreciated that the resources required to generate suchsocial graphs may be dependent both on the number of attendees in agiven video conference, as well as the extent of the informationavailable regarding their social relationships. In order to conservesuch resources, saved social graphs may also be used by system 10 asstarting points and/or references for subsequent video conferencesincluding some or all of the same attendees. For example, if a givenattendee attends three video conferences in the same day, service 150may be configured to reuse the attendee's collated relationshipinformation from the first meeting of the day for the next two meetingswithout accessing social networks 140 and 145 for updates. Similarly, iftwo attendees jointly attend two video conferences in the same day, theintersection of their social graphs may be reused for the second videoconference. It will be appreciated, however, that there may be changesto an individual's social graph during the course of the day; system 10may be configured as to how long saved information may be used.

It will be appreciated that system 10 may in fact be configured tofacilitate such changes in an attendee's social graph. In accordancewith embodiments of the present invention, system 10 may be operative toprovide social connection suggestions to non-connected attendees of thevideo conference. For example, if two attendees are not connected inenterprise social network 140 and/or an external social network 145,system 10 may send suggest that one or both of the attendees connectwith the other.

Alternatively or in addition, system 10 may detect two attendees thatare connected in one social network, i.e. enterprise social network 140or an external social network 145, and based on that connection, system10 may suggest that they connect in the second network. For example, twoattendees may already be connected in enterprise social network 140, andboth attendees may already have non-connected accounts in the sameexternal social network 145. System 10 may then suggest that theyconnect in external social network 145 as well.

It will be appreciated that the circumstances for such suggestions maybe configurable. System 10 may be configured with default rules andcircumstances for sending such suggestions. For example, depending onthe configuration, the suggestions may or may not be limited to membersof the enterprise; suggestions may or may not only be extended at thebeginning/end of a video conference; and so. The suggestions maytypically be in the form of emails to attendees. Alternatively or inaddition, system 10 may use APIs from social networks 140 and 145 toprovide the suggestions to the attendees.

It will be appreciated that the relationships mapped by social graphrenderer 120 may also be based on historical data, i.e. non-currentstatuses. For example, the profiles of two attendees in enterprisesocial network 140 may indicate that in the past they both attended thesame university or were both previously employed at the same place ofemployment. System 10 may be configured to display such historicalrelationships as well.

Reference is now made to FIG. 4 which illustrates social connectionvisualization process 400. Process 400 may be performed by meetingservice 110 in accordance with embodiments described hereinabove to atleast render and present visualizations of social connections betweenattendees of a video conference. Meeting service 110 may identify (step410) attendees of a video conference using, for example, facerecognition, voice recognition, site, location and combinations thereof.

Meeting service 110 may retrieve (step 420) relationship data associatedwith the identified attendees as collated by service 150. It will beappreciated that step 420 may comprise both retrieving (step 425)associated data from internal sources such as attendee directory 130 andenterprise social network 140, as well as retrieving (step 428) similardata from external social networks 145.

Meeting service 110 may employ social graph renderer 120 to render (step430) a social graph based on the data received from service 150. Meetingservice 110 may forward (step 440) visualization data based on therendered social graph for presentation at one or more of theparticipating video conference sites.

If all of the attendees have already been identified (step 450), process400 may enter (step 460) a wait state to wait for a relationship inquiry(step 470) from an attendee or video conference site or the end of thevideo conference. If all of the attendees have not been identified (step450), control may return to step 410 where the additional data availablefrom the social graph may be employed to attempt to identify remainingunidentified attendees as described hereinabove. It will be appreciatedthat in order to conserve processing resources, meeting service 110 maybe configured with a limit as to how many times control may loop back tostep 410. Once the limit may be reached, control may flow through tostep 460 regardless of whether or not all attendees may be identified.

If a relationship inquiry is received (step 480), control of process 400may then proceed according to the nature of the inquiry. For example, ifan inquiry is received regarding the identity of a given attendee,process 400 may return to step 410. It will be appreciated that such arequest may be received regardless of whether or not the indicated theindicated attendee was previously identified. For example, such aninquiry may be initiated by an attendee that disagrees with a previouslymade identification.

It will be appreciated that system 10 may be configurable to selectivelylimit the information retrieved by service 150. Accordingly, somerelationship inquiries may be used to ask for additional information notincluded in a standard presentation. In response to such inquiries,process 400 may return to steps 425 or 428 in order to retrieve theadditional information. It will also be appreciated that step 470 mayalso be used by attendee to personalize the presentation at their VCSand/or on their companion devices 300. In such cases, control may returnto step 440.

If the video conference has ended, i.e. the wait state of step 460 wasnot ended by a relationship inquiry (step 480), meeting service 110 maysave (step 490) some or all of the rendered social graph, and process400 may end.

It is appreciated that software components of the present invention may,if desired, be implemented in ROM (read only memory) form. The softwarecomponents may, generally, be implemented in hardware, if desired, usingconventional techniques. It is further appreciated that the softwarecomponents may be instantiated, for example: as a computer programproduct or on a tangible medium. In some cases, it may be possible toinstantiate the software components as a signal interpretable by anappropriate computer, although such an instantiation may be excluded incertain embodiments of the present invention.

It is appreciated that various features of the invention which are, forclarity, described in the contexts of separate embodiments may also beprovided in combination in a single embodiment. Conversely, variousfeatures of the invention which are, for brevity, described in thecontext of a single embodiment may also be provided separately or in anysuitable subcombination.

It will be appreciated by persons skilled in the art that the presentinvention is not limited by what has been particularly shown anddescribed hereinabove. Rather the scope of the invention is defined bythe appended claims and equivalents thereof:

What is claimed is:
 1. A method implemented on a computing device forconducting a video conference, the method comprising: detecting thepresence of individual attendees in said video conference; andidentifying at least one of said individual attendees using at least oneof face recognition, voice recognition, site, location, or combinationsthereof; accessing social network profiles associated with attendees ofsaid video conference; for a non-identified individual attendee for whomsaid identifying individual attendees is unsuccessful, identifying saidnon-identified individual attendee at least according to informationfrom one of said accessed social network profiles associated with atleast one of said identified individual attendees; mapping at leastrelationships between at least some of said attendees at least accordingto information in said profiles, thereby generating a social graph ofsaid attendees; and presenting at least a representation of a portion ofsaid social graph to said attendees during said video conference.
 2. Themethod according to claim 1 and wherein said portion of said socialgraph represents relationships between said attendees, wherein saidrelationships are at least one of: shared characteristics, and orconnections in a social network.
 3. The method according to claim 1 andwherein said identifying non-identified individual attendee comprises:identifying said non-identified individual attendee from amongconnections of at least one of said identified individual attendeesattending said video conference, wherein said connections are procuredvia said accessing.
 4. The method according to claim 1 and wherein saididentifying a non-identified individual attendee comprises: searching atleast one social network for public profiles of members sharing at leastone common characteristic with at least one said identified attendeeattending said video conference; and identifying said non-identifiedindividual attendee from among said public profiles.
 5. The methodaccording to claim 4 and wherein said at least one common characteristicis at least one of an email domain, a place of employment, a site, orlocation, or a combination thereof.
 6. The method according to claim 1and wherein said social network profiles are from an enterprise socialnetwork associated with an enterprise with which said computing deviceis associated.
 7. The method according to claim 1 and wherein saidsocial network profiles are from a social network external to anenterprise with which said computing device is associated.
 8. The methodaccording to claim 1 and wherein said relationships are at least in partbased on non-current statuses of said attendees.
 9. The method accordingto claim 1 and wherein said presenting may comprise forwarding saidrepresentation of at least a portion of said social graph to a companiondevice for presentation, wherein said companion device is at least oneof a smartphone, a tablet, a laptop or a personal computer.
 10. Themethod according to claim 9 and wherein said representation of at leasta portion of said social graph is configurable in accordance withrequests by a user of said companion device.
 11. The method according toclaim 1 and also comprising: receiving a request for a representation ofrelationships between at least one specific attendee and at least oneother attendee; generating said representation of relationships based atleast on said social graph; and forwarding said representation ofrelationships for presentation to a video conference site associatedwith said request.
 12. The method according to claim 1 and alsocomprising restricting said presenting in accordance with a policy. 13.The method according to claim 1 and also comprising saving said socialgraph.
 14. The method according to claim 13 and also comprising mergingtwo saved social graphs.
 15. The method according to claim 13 and alsocomprising using at least a part of said saved social graph to generatea new social graph for a subsequent video conference.
 16. The methodaccording to claim 1 and also comprising:—based on said social graph,suggesting to at least one attendee to connect with at least one othersaid attendee using said social network profiles.
 17. A video conferenceuser interface implemented on a computing device, the user interfacecomprising: an attendee social relationship service operative to atleast: detect the presence of individual attendees in a videoconference, identify at least one of said individual attendees using atleast one of face recognition, voice recognition, site, location, orcombinations thereof, access at least one social network to receiveinformation regarding profiles of video conference attendees, for anon-identified individual attendee for whom said identifying individualattendees is unsuccessful, identify said non-identified individualattendee at least according to information from one of said accessedsocial network profiles associated with at least one of said identifiedindividual attendees, and identify a non-identified individual attendeeaccording to at least said information associated with at least one ofsaid identified individual attendees; a social graph renderer operativeto render a social graph based at least on said information from saidenterprise social network; and a meeting service to provide apresentation of at least a part of said social graph to at least onevideo conference site participating in an associated video conference.18. The system according to claim 17 and also comprising a videoconference site comprising at least one display operative to displaysaid presentation.